The Old War
by Recursive Logic
Summary: Summary In-Progress (Shadow Dragon)
1. Meet Trayven

Despite several minutes of pouting, the river refused to reveal the fish. Trayven knew that fish were in the river (he had some yesterday) but today he couldn't find any. That was ridiculous. There was always fish, even if it was really stormy.

Of course, he _could_ eat something other than fish, but he wouldn't. He wanted _fish_ , not nuts or berries or whatever else he could eat in the forest. He could just find a new river. Actually, he _would_ find a new river. The current one was lame anyway.

He simply had to head home, grab all of his stuff, and move it, which he had done before. He knew the forest very well, and his home was in a pretty open area.

While it wouldn't be hard, it would probably be annoying to relocate. The forest had rough terrain so he tripped often, and there was a fox somewhere near his house that constantly attacked him. Ugh. He might as well head home now.

He had made many houses in the past, but his most recent one was easily his favorite. By using a log that fell against a rock, he was able to place large branches and small trees to make it more like a cave than a proper home. He had his trusty blanket for a floor, and all of his stuff piled in the far corner, against the rock.

His current pile was quite small, being made up of only his cloak for bad weather and a pole he used to keep wild animals (like the fox) away. He also had the clothes he was wearing, and of course his dragonstone, which he kept with him at all times.

His dragonstone was jagged and red like fire. He understood the importance of it, and how it represented his inner strength or something similar, but he just liked looking at it. The red was mesmerising, and even just looking into it caused him to lose track of time.

His cloak, unlike his dragonstone, was not mesmerising. It was plain and brown. The pole was just a long stick, with nothing special about it, besides sentimental value. The blanket was old and smelled funny, but he wasn't about to leave anything behind. With a quick grab, all of his stuff was back in his hands, and it was time to go.

Of course, Trayven didn't actually know where he was going to go, but he knew that he wanted a new river. He picked a direction that he never had gone before, and started walking. For a while, the forest still looked the same way it always did. By the time that he couldn't recognize the scenery, his legs hurt. A lot. And he was hungry.

Ah, right. He was looking for fish earlier. That's why he felt like he hadn't eaten all day. Looking around, he didn't see anything that looked edible. That sucked. Maybe he could try to eat some of the plants around him. There was a flower nearby that looked particularly appetising. While it could be dangerous, it likely wasn't, so he happily ate it. He didn't feel any worse after eating it, so it could only make him feel better to eat more. Luckily, there was no shortage of the flowers around him, so he continued to enjoy them.

After having about a dozen of the flowers, he felt far better. With a full stomach and high morale, he decided to continue his journey to a new river. He began to walk forward, before realizing that he didn't remember which way he was going.

He didn't remember which way he came from either. That made sense. If he didn't know where he was going, how could he know where he came from? Yup. He was totally lost. He _could_ fly above the trees and look around, but transforming was annoying and flying was hard, so he'd rather not.

Being lost sucked. He hated it. Too much waiting was involved, and waiting meant not moving. He wanted to just burn the whole forest to the ground instead of sitting around any longer. Would that be a bad idea? Maybe. It would be hard to find food if he set everything on fire, and those flowers were really good. So he wouldn't want to burn them, right?

Ugh. All this thinking was making him dizzy. The floor was spinning, and it was getting hard to stand. Floor? He clearly wasn't thinking straight. Like how the trees were no longer straight. They were also purple. Not only that, but the flowers were singing. He didn't even know they could do that.

Oh. That was his lunch. Eww. Hey, the trees were starting to sing too. It was pretty. Was it a lullaby? Actually, he was feeling pretty tired, so taking a nap sounded like a really good idea. Yeah, he was gonna do that. The grass was really soft right now, like a pillow.

* * *

 **AN:** This is my first fanfiction, so I don't know how this is going to look, display wise. I hope I didn't mess anything up. More then that, this is the first story i've written in years, so the quality will improve rapidly as I get back into the swing of it.

The second chapter is actually already done, but I'm not uploading it for a while in order to keep your guys's expectations low for update speed.

I was originally going to add Marth at the end of this chapter, but the lack of dialogue in this chapter makes me not want to add any.

Thanks for reading.


	2. Not Chapter 3

**A Study of Dragons**

 **Chapter 3: Origins of Longevity**

The long life of the manakete is a topic oft discussed by my fellow scholars. The gift of life that is given to these creatures is quite a plexing one, and is worth both discussion and further study. There are many stories of the origins of their extended lifespans, and I have recorded the recurring ones in the following pages.

One of the most popular sources is a book of Folk Tales, published and well-received in Altea, which, among other stories, tells of a man who gained the gift of eternal life by consuming the dragon blood from a fallen Manakete warrior. Similar tales of consuming Manakete blood can be found in traditional, verbal tales told across Archanea, with notable examples being found in Talys and Macedon.

I have found the idea that the blood of the dragon is the key ingredient in immortality to hold some merit, but it is not unanimously accepted by all of my peers, and as such, I have decided to look for other possible sources of the phenomena.

In my search, I have found that some of my fellows from isolated communities share belief in a supposed first Manakete that ate a forbidden fruit and gained knowledge of eternal life.

This belief shares many threads with the well known tale of a hidden spring blessed by the goddess. Perhaps my fellows are implying that a tree grown on the edge of this spring could be the mythical source of the Manakete's life. Many different stories from across the continent intersect in such a manner, but I always find it interesting to find additional examples. A small coastal town in Talys offered another example that I will relay to you.

The tale goes as follows: A dragon existed since the creation of everything. This dragon aligns with a common deity in myth, and the town worshiped it as it's primary god. This dragon was said to have fallen in love with a woman from the capital city, which of course would not have existed back then. This dragon supposedly then attempted to befriend the woman, but only succeeded at scaring her away. Undeterred, the dragon attempted again to befriend the woman, this time in human form. They succeeded, and it is said that this dragon helped found the town in which it is worshipped.

Of course, despite the absurdity of such a tale, the idea of Manaketes being dragons looking for life among us is not impossible. After all, it is not hard to imagine what difficulties come with the life of a great beast. My fellow scholars all found the thought quite amusing.

In my continued search for information on dragons, I have found that there are many tales of battle between man and dragon, but few offer insight on the topic at hand. There are some scattered tales of ancient Manakete warriors sacrificing victims in order to prolong their existences, however my fellow scholars have warned me not to believe unverified accounts of war, especially those from small towns.

As such, my search took me to the various capitals of many nations, where large archives and great libraries find themselves housed. Even with the knowledge of great nations at my disposal, stories of battle against Manaketes were rare. It seemed to me that whatever the cause of their long lives, war is not one of them.

However, one nation's great archive, the nation in question I cannot recall, offered a verifiable tale of an ancient battle between Man and Dragon. The text in question was faded, and all names involved have been lost to time, however I could gleam some details worth sharing.

The battle was between a full-sized army and a small group of dragons, this much is clear, however how an army ended up in conflict with the group is unknown. My fellows believe that perhaps the conflict was initially between two armies of equal size, and that somehow one of them was superseded by the beasts.

Whatever the case, the battle seems to have raged for many moons, and the dragons came out the victors. The details were hazy, however it seems that the beasts attacked like birds of prey, and slowly whittled away on the army, with some men being taken away in their talons and never being seen again. As the battle raged, and more men were taken, the number of dragons seems to have increased. The implications of this are startling, and my fellows have agreed to not discuss them at any point.

This account lines up with others of a similar nature, and seems to indicate that dragons were once both more numerous and hostile than they are today, suggesting that the source of their longevity is becoming scarce, and they are dying out as a result.

* * *

 **AN:** This chapter has been done for a while, and I was going to upload it later, but why not now?

So, to clarify, this is Chapter 2. Among all the people who have read it so far, there seems to be some confusion about that.

I actually write myself notes at the beginning of each chapter to remind myself what I want done, and there are a few interesting tidbits in the note for this chapter that relate to my original idea for a story, like references to racism and bigot-ism that are no longer there.

I actually want feedback for what you think of this chapter, even if you don't like the style. This will likely determine how often I make these chapters.

Thanks for reading.


	3. Milord?

Trayven had a massive headache. He also heard talking all around him. Were the flowers _talking_ now? He felt awake, but you could never be sure.

They were moving now. He should probably check if they are people or flowers. That would make a difference.

He opened his eyes and looked around. There were many people around him, and, delightfully enough, each one had a different color! There was a blue person with no horse, there was a red horseman, a green horseman, a purple horseman, and an old grey horseman! None of them were looking at him, they all seemed to be arguing.

The blue person suddenly turned to him, and he was very much ready to panic. Then they held out their hand and calmly said, "There are better places to take a nap then on the ground, my friend. Here, give me your hand."

Trayven, not one to decline random people's requests, gladly accepted, and offered the blue person his hand.

The stranger grasped his hand, and began pulling him up by instinct alone, before seeming to realize something, and dropping Trayven with a screech.

Oh. His hand was covered in vomit. Gross. Really gross. Dear Naga, it was gross. Due to the threat that the sticky substance posed to his life, Trayven quickly reached for his dragonstone, while the blue person was violently shaking his hand nearby.

He began to pull it out when a sudden shriek from the blue person caused him to fumble and drop his stone onto the ground. The grey horseman acted quickly, grabbing his stone and inspecting it carefully. He scoffed, "What is this? A weapon, perhaps?"

Trayven quickly jumped to his feet and reached for his stone, only for the man to hold it just out of his reach using his superior height.

With a frown, and while holding the stone yet higher, the paladin continued."Well? Speak now. Do you wish to harm my liege?"

Trayven attempted to reply but only let out a pathetic wheeze. Undeterred, he cleared his throat and tried again, "Nope! It's my dragonstone!"

The knight's (already ugly) frown became a full scowl, and he reached for his spear, before hesitating due to Trayven's intense closeness to him.

The blue man -now vomit free- noticed the action going on and called out, "Hold, Jagen!"

Jagen, who was already hesitating, slowly put his hand back to his side, and turned to the blue person.

Trayven attempted to take advantage of the distraction to take his dragonstone back, but Jagen noticed and swatted Trayven out of the way nonchalantly, before addressing the blue person. "Milord, are you sure that it is wise to allow this creature to run amok?"

Blue then frowned in a failed attempt to match Jagen's intense scowl, and stated, "That 'creature' is merely a child, and you should remember that!"

Trayven, who had been attempting to keep up with the conversation, grinned and joined in, "I'm actually older than both of you! I'm 113 years old!"

Jagen then turned to Trayven with a glare almost murderous enough to leap off his face in an attempt to sate its bloodlust. "Milord, you know the dragonkin cannot be trusted. They turned Gra against us, have taken your father and your sister from us, and are capable of many other atrocities, if only we allow them to do so."

The blue person, who Trayven now could name as "Milord", seemed to fume for a moment, before pretending to be fine, and retorted. "Jagen. Earlier you said we don't have any time to waste, so why do you continue to delay our escape?"

Jagen, who had now fully dropped his guard, faced Milord and stashed his lance away slowly. "Milord, despite how untrustworthy I find this creature, you are correct. We must continue with all due haste."

Trayven, lost and hungry as he was, and not wanting to be left behind, decided to talk to Milord while he still could. "Uhm. Are you leaving the forest? I'm kinda lost and could use help getting out. Can you take me with you?"

Milord looked surprised for a moment, before quickly grinning to Jagen and turning to Trayven. "Of course! I would be honored to have your help!"

While Trayven was pleased that Milord answered as he did, Jagen was not. In fact, he was livid. His face was red, and his scowl somehow became worse than before. Milord didn't seem to notice, as he was focused on Trayven's dragonstone, which was still in the knight's hands. "Jagen. Give his stone back."

The knight lowered his arm almost mechanically, his face shifting through a variety of emotions at once. Trayven gladly grabbed his stone, and thanked the man before turning to Milord with a smile on his face. "Thanks! Now we can go! I was getting really hungry, and the flowers were starting to look delicious again, so I'm glad you came when you did!"

The group around him had a variety of emotions on all of their faces, from anger, to disbelief, to anger again, but Trayven was fine with that. He knew that he was going to be good friends with these colorful knights, even if they didn't want him to.

* * *

 **AN:** Well. This took a while. I hope the promise of at least two chapters a month can help wash down the bitter pill of me being slow.

I have an insane idea for what I'm going to write when this story finishes in like ten years or whatever, and all you need to know, is that is crack-y.

Thanks for reading. Circles are good.


	4. A Coincidence in Chapter Numbers

**A Study of Dragons**

 **Chapter 4: Sources of Decline**

In response to my prior statements regarding the loss of longevity among dragons, my fellow scholars have noted that decreasing lifespans among them may not necessarily cause a fall in their population. It thus seems likely to me that a more direct cause must exist for this trend, which I will need to study further to understand the increasing rarity of dragonkind.

In my past travels, I found a book on many ancient draconic kingdoms. This multitude of kingdoms in the past suggests that dragons were numerous enough to populate not just one kingdom, but many. Given that there is only one dragon kingdom left, it seems clear that their population has fallen from its previous heights.

If we compare this decline of dragon kingdoms to the declines of human kingdoms, it seems plausible that dragons encountered some kind of famine, much as normal kingdoms might before their collapse. It could be concluded that the food of dragons has gone down in number. However, without the ability to easily determine the food of these dragons, this cannot be verified. After discussing this problem with my fellow scholars it became clear that we would have to find a cause for this decline that could be supported in more detail.

We quickly realized that the most likely cause of the deaths that would lead to such a decline were if the dragons had not starved, but been actively hunted down and killed. Of course, this brings to mind some kind of predator to hunt down and kill dragons, which led to the collapse of many ancient kingdoms as the dragons fled from this fearsome creature.

However, a predator mighty enough to kill a dragon should likely be well known, for the act of killing a dragon is an extraordinary task and this predator would have to not only accomplish such a feat, but do so consistently and easily enough to drive the collapse of several kingdoms. The problem posed here is certainly problematic for this theory, but only if we imagine this predator as some kind of wild beast. If this dragon killer instead used great stealth and skill to stalk and kill dragons without needing to overpower them, it is much more likely that it would not have been found by us, as remaining hidden to dragons would require such immense skill that no warrior or tracker of any current kingdom could hope to find any signs of it.

However, I do not believe that this predator would be unseen throughout all of human history, and that there would need to be myths or stories of a creature that hunts dragons to add enough credence to this theory.

The natural next step was to search our own research material for any mention of similar creatures. However, this search proved fruitless, and after discussing the matter with my peers, I have concluded that any more research on the topic would be fruitless.

* * *

 **AN:** I accidentally uploaded this with the notes still attached, so that had to go. Speaking of notes: this chapter's shortened length is due to the material of the chapter being pretty hard to come up with.

Not all of the ideas in this chapter are benched forever, some will come back later as more developed ideas.


End file.
